With an uncertain offseason, the Blue Jays should put some serious consideration into their 2018 social media campaign and get the right hashtag going

Hashtags have become a part of life for many of the events that either compliment or decimate the world as we know it. They have become an integral part of how we communicate, and how we keep conversations together in the deep hole that is social media. Let’s face it, the hashtag has become a part of the human existence. It seems that MLB has embraced this practice with each team unveiling their hashtags for the next season during the baseball abyss that is the offseason. Teams are using the hashtag as a call to arms of sorts, in the fight to rein supreme during and at the end of a long baseball season. Sometimes it can energize a fan base, and sometimes it can backfire tremendously.

Last season’s hashtag for the Blue Jays didn’t do any energizing. It seemed to backfire. Many Blue Jays fans have made fun of the hashtag #LetsRise, some refusing to use it. In the midst of the off season, months after the Blue Jays bats went silent, it is still just as unpopular.

At first glance, the LetsRise hashtag was fraught with problems. With no punctuation, many, myself included, were left asking “who lets what rise?”. Even in the world of hashtags, punctuation matters. Twitter began to swirl on the subject, but the Blue Jays had already put out a statement about the meaning of let’s rise, hoping to make sense of it, to explain the reasoning behind the choice. The thing is, if you have to explain it, it’s not doing what you want it to be doing. It has to resonate without the need for explanation.

Unfortunately, punctuation wasn’t the only issue with the hashtag. The start of the season, in April, coincided with Easter, making #LetsRise less about baseball. It was feeling less and less like a baseball call to arms.

#LetsRise sounds like something that a priest says at a really laid-back church

There is also a variety of different companies and causes that use the same hashtag, one being Westin Hotels. So a Westin is letting people rise at the hotel maybe? Yes I’m still stuck on the punctuation.

Our well-being expert @RachaelFinch led a live workout yesterday in Sydney to celebrate the launch of in-room video workouts, available soon at our hotels across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Fiji. The series can be accessed 24/7 on guestroom TVs. #LetsRise#MoveWellpic.twitter.com/42DltK6eKs

Past hashtags seemed to be more inspiring and more distinctly Blue Jays. #ComeTogether in 2015 and #OurMoment in 2016 were more in tune with the fan base, definitely more of a call to arms than the #LetsRise hashtag of 2017. Some great Blue Jays memories were immortalized under those hashtags. #ComeTogether is still used, as it manages to invoke images of a magical season, and a team full of promise.

There are already suggestions for this year’s hashtag coming out on Twitter and they seem to be a reflection of how fans feel so far in this off season.

Finding a hashtag that will be both that call to arms the Blue Jays are looking for, as well as excite the fans for the upcoming season and throughout, could prove to be quite the feat this year. Much might depend on how the Blue Jays come through the winter meetings. #statusquo doesn’t have a nice ring to it, and won’t go over well.

Despite this hashtag creation being the task, it is one to get right. It somehow has to invoke the dreams and possibilities of the team, and speak to the fanbase. Maybe making it more about team identity with the thought of having a successful hashtag more permanent should be considered. #WeTheNorth is tremendously popular and has become synonymous with the Toronto Raptors. The Blue Jays should take note.

The question left to ask is, what say you Blue Jays fans? What could the next Blue Jays hashtag be?

Catherine Stem is a Blue Jays fan and writer who has combined both of these great things by writing for Jays From the Couch. Through all the ups and downs of baseball, all aspects of the game are explored. Keeping a close eye on the Blue Jays Triple A team, the Buffalo Bisons has also become part of her make-up.

Catherine Stem is a Blue Jays fan and writer who has combined both of these great things by writing for Jays From the Couch. Through all the ups and downs of baseball, all aspects of the game are explored. Keeping a close eye on the Blue Jays Triple A team, the Buffalo Bisons has also become part of her make-up.